The LinksAir aircraft that crash landed at Robin Hood Airport last month had a similar problem before, according to an air accident report.

In a special bulletin in to the incident on the evening of August 15, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said that the left main landing gear of the BAE Systems Jetstream 31 plane collapsed after the aircraft landed.

Preliminary findings indicated that stress corrosion cracking at the top of the left landing gear leg had initiated the collapse.

With the left landing gear detached from its mounts, the aircraft slid along the runway and came to rest on the adjacent grass, with the single passenger and the two crew members able to get out unhurt.

The aircraft had been on a scheduled flight from Belfast City Airport.

The AAIB said that on March 8 2012, the same aircraft, then operated by airline Manx2, had suffered a failure to its right main landing gear as it landed at Isle of Man airport. None of the 12 passengers or two crew members were hurt.

The AAIB said that its investigation into the March 2012 incident had led to a safety recommendation to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) concerning the identification of cracks on landing gears fitted to Jetstream 31 aircraft.

The report said that given the similarities of last month’s incident to the one in 2012 “it is evident that the inspections of, and the modifications to, the left main landing gear of G-GAVA (the LinksAir Jetstream) were not effective in preventing this accident”, and called for Jetstream 31s to be checked in future.